Enterprise and Crew Teach GRE Vocabulary
by ahendrix
Summary: Abscission - (n.) Act of cutting off or removing; can also mean the actual cut itself
1. Abate

Abate – (v.) To lesson in intensity or degree

A pale green plastic tray of lack-luster replicated plomeek sat cooling in front of the Commander. He knew, of course, it was illogical to find Enterprise's version of the traditional Vulcan dish so…unappetizing.

In every way that mattered, it was exactly like his mother's, each cytoplast and polymer chain in exactly the right space for optimum nutrition and flavor. He'd programmed the dish himself, down to the teaspoon of terran nutmeg and the cellulose concentration of an in-season plomeek shoot.

But it was never quite right. He'd spent hours finessing the recipe and he still couldn't get palatable cup of soup. Perhaps if he increased the thickness of the cell wall or added more cream? He woke up each morning looking forward to the results of his latest revisions, only to be disappointed each time.

One good cup of plomeek soup, it seemed like a simple enough desire. He kept waiting for the craving to abate, when suddenly he realized it never would


	2. Aberrant

aberrant - (adj.) deviating from the norm

Ensign Kittle lingered awkwardly outside Botany Lab 7, standard issue black pad held in both hands. There was nothing standard, however, in the readings the pad contained. At least in Kittle's opinion, not that his opinion seemed to count for much on this star ship.

Howard Kittle had graduated the academy fifth in his class, first in the science officer track. He held degrees in astrophysics and xenobiology. His senior thesis on the quantum nature of life and sentience was published in _Monthly Notices of the Federation Astronomical Society. _Bright, his professors had called him. He'd taken his first steps on the Enterprise excited and full of pride.

He quickly learned his place. Everyone on the Enterprise was "bright," an entire ship full of only the best of the best. It was enough to shake anyone's confidence.

Still, there was something wrong, or at least not right, with data in his hands. To everyone in Star Lab 4, the nebula they'd been cataloging for the last several days was well within normal parameters. Everyone, that is, except Mr. Kittle.

The nebula's had an wave pattern that didn't make any sense. Every fourth oscillation the regular period would be interrupted by what Kittle's senior officer deemed sensor noise. He'd re-calibrated the sensors three times and still kept getting these aberrant readings. It almost looked like...communication.

The laboratory doors opened suddenly, Commander Spock walking quickly to report for alpha shift.

"Excuse me, Commander. I - uh- I noticed this wave thing...I mean - I think you need to see this, sir."


	3. Abjure

Abjure - (v.) To renounce or reject solemnly; To recant, to avoid

James Tiberius Kirk loved space, everything to do with space. The heat, the silence, the taste of recirculated air. Most of all, the stark and endless possibilities contained in every single parsec of this wondrous play ground. He, however, hated the squiggles it produced with a passion. That's what he had a science officer for, so that he would never have to lay eyes on another data imbued squiggle ever again.

His apparent loathing never seemed to stop his first officer from putting data laden pads in his hands. Like he was doing - right now. Kirk glared down at the spectrograph, involuntarily flashing back to Phys 4001: A Quantitative and Analytical Introduction to the Universe.

He'd taken the lecture and its' accompanying laboratory-because there was always an accompanying lab-his first semester at the academy. It was a required course for all command track cadets, the higher-ups believing the comprehensive overview would teach these future pilots and captains to handle and interpret massive amounts of data. It was an excellent exercise, really. As captain of the Enterprise, he was bombarded constantly with warp efficiency readings, Klingon intelligence reports, the number of crew members that had nightmares each night, even the concentration of oxygen in the crew's drinking water, down to the parts per million.

None of this turned memorizing the GCMS and NMR readings of Polaris IV's atmosphere into a fond memory. He'd aced the class, officially and permanently abjuring from all types of spectroscopy and their damn squiggles henceforth-or so he'd thought.

"What am I lookin' for here, Spock?" He asked, trying, and failing, to keep from rolling his eyes.


	4. Abrogate

Abrogate - (v.) To abolish or annul by authority

"You should have seen, doctor! Saunders - engineering Saunders, not navigation Saunders - charged right at me, thinking he'd force his way past. Who-ho, was he wrong, I stood my ground Tolkien-style. We both ended falling off the ramp...well I guess you know the rest." The young Denobulan lieutenant gave Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy the blow-by-blow as the bone regenerator repaired his shattered elbow.

Parrises squares - or as Leonard liked to call it: idiots smashing into one another - was a time honored Starfleet tradition. Today marked the Enterprise's first ever ship-wide tournament. If it was up to him - and it should be, he was the damn chief medical officer, for God's sake - he'd abrogate the entire tournament and ban the game from every campus, space station, and starship in the quadrant.

Unfortunately, the captain (king of said idiots) thought the tournament was a stellar idea. McCoy'd seen four broken wrists already.

_Speak of the devil_, thought McCoy as Kirk and Spock walked into the med bay. "What can I do for you, your Highness?"


	5. Abscission

Abscission - (n.) Act of cutting off or removing; can also mean the actual cut itself

Lieutenant Uhura examined her abscission, carefully checking for impurities that would further muck up the delicate subspace equipment. She was in the process of re-wiring the bridge's comm station for the second time that week, her entire torso submerged in the fickle equipment.

Nebulae were hell on the comm station's finespun silicon matrices and tetryon sensors. The space around the Enterprise was teeming with frantic, atomized metals and high frequency radiation. An unfortunate side effect of boldly going where no man has gone before.

Uhura's comm badge chirped, "Kirk to bridge. Uhura, we need you in Med Bay 6."

"On my way, Captain." Responded Uhura, wriggling to reach her badge in the tight space.

_What could they possibly need me for in the med bay? _She'd assigned Ensign Deshpande to fix that comm unit yesterday, it couldn't possibly need maintenance again. She walked down the corridor, simultaneously identifying possible problems with med bay's subspace unit and writing a research proposal to improve the system's utility in nebulae and ion storms.


End file.
